Your Safe Routes to Transit program is funding design work for the Richmond/Ohlone Greenway gap closure project, a relatively short project that connects long stretches of greenway on either side. Powerpoint presentation is online at: www.ci.richmond.ca.us/index.aspx?nid=1118
To bridge the gap between the Richmond and Ohlone Greenways, the proposed design will install a new 16′ wide at-grade crossing of San Pablo Ave at the endpoint of the Ohlone Greenway. It would also re-route and pave the eastern portion of the Richmond Greenway so that it connects with the new crossing of San Pablo Ave. The crossing design will include bulb-outs, a removal of the median, a new traffic signal for a dedicated bike/ped crossing, and bike-activated crosswalk sensors.
“This Richmond/Ohlone Greenway project represents a big win for pedestrian and bicycle accessibility. When complete, not only will we have made a dangerous crossing much safer, but we will have a bike/pedestrian destination worth visiting,” states Adam Beerman, a Bicycle Coalition member who bike commutes from Berkeley to Richmond along the Greenway.
The west side of the crossing will run between Home Depot and the Taco Bell. From there the pathway would follow under the BART tracks to the I-80 pedestrian underpass.
The project also includes landscaping and re-vegetation of Baxter creek, which will complement the landscaping improvements already made on the El Cerrito side of the Greenway. The project will be completed as soon as BART completes its seismic retrofit work on their aerial tracks in the area, which is still a couple of years away.